The dark eyed little girl stared at him, holding out her hand. He tried to grab her hand, to pull her away from the darkness that was swirling around behind her. She began to fade before he could even touch her, the darkness aborsing her until there wasn't even a person shape left.

"No…", he whispered, ice clutching his heart, he didn't know what was happening but it wasn't good, there was something bad going on and he couldn't stop it. Whatever happened to that little girl was going to be his fault just like everything else was his fault.

'Judai', the voice whispered in his head, before Judai slammed the mental door on the part of him that allowed the spirits to come through. He wasn't about to open up that again so that Yubel could try to convince him that what he was doing was wrong.

He didn't deserve to have any other abilities, then the ones that he had as a normal human being, he only had them for reasons that didn't give him any right to be special. He crushed his legs to his chest, shutting his eyes and trying to catch his breath.

If his powers couldn't save one little girl then why did he even have them?

'Judai!' the voice was screaming now, trying to catch his attention, he didn't care he didn't want it to reach him. He wanted to stay in his ball and just let all the screaming out.

There was a sharp pain in the back of his head, jerking him away from his own mind.

When Asuka had walked into her house, and hadn't heard anything she had been afraid that Judai had just taken off on her again. But walking farther into the house she could see him curled up on the couch, clearly have fallen asleep waiting for her. Reaching her hand out, she shook his shoulder gently.

"Judai…"

He made a small grunting noise, shaking his head, "no…Yubel…no….couldn't…"

He was dreaming that much was clear to her, caught up in some memory that he had tried to bury. Thinking that she would just leave him, he began to shake and shiver. Awful moans and noises were coming out of him, like he was in so much pain that he could barely handle it.

"Judai!" all she could do was scream, still shaking his shoulders trying as hard as she could to wake him up.

"NO!" just screaming that word over and over again, his hands pinning himself to the couch, in terror of something that only he could see.

In an act of desperation, Asuka reached to the nape of his neck, grabbing the long strands of hair laying here. She twisted them around her fingers and pulled back, his head snapping upwards.

His eyes split open, a small whimper coming form his throat form the pain of his hair being tugged.

"…you aren't allowed to leave", She whispered, releasing his hair and smoothing them down again with a gentle hand.

"…kay", he didn't seem to be too much in the mood or the shape to be able to disagree with her, though that would change once he woke up a little more.

She almost had to force feed him, holding the glass of water up to his mouth just so that he would drink. Shell shocked was what he reminded her of, someone who had seen things and just couldn't bring himself to stop seeing them.

Judai started at the glass in front of him, not seeming to comprehend what it was or why it was sitting in front of him. He licked his lips, his wide brown eyes never blinking as they just started in space. He wasn't in her house right now, he was somewhere miles away.

"Do you want to tell me what the hell that was about?"

He laughed, "That was nothing Asuka you shouldn't worry so much, what about work how was that?"

"Judai—"

"Hey what about those handcuffs what was up with that I didn't think you were—"

Her hand found the hair at the back of his neck again, jerking his head back as she whispered in his ear, "You will shut up and listen to me do we have an agreement"

He whimpered again, but nodded as much as he could. The pain was shooting through the back of his head and into his neck but the fear of what else she would do was worse then the pain.

"For the moment I will ignore the nightmare, and assume it was a onetime accordance, because we have other things to speak about. Agreed?"

"Yes…", she could hear the pain in his voice, and untangled her fingers form his hair.

She sat back in her chair, crossing her legs like nothing had happened as Judai rubbed the back of his head. "It's been agreed that you'll be staying here, what hasn't been agreed on is…if you'd agree to what we spoke about this morning?"

"Will you keep pulling on my hair?"

"Part of the relationship is punishment so yes"

He shrugged, "I guess I think we should do it, I mean…why not right?" he grinned at her, a wide bright smile that she remembered form when they were younger and innocent.

Asuka nodded, propping her chin on her hands, "It's your choice, so I can't tell you what to do or what not to do, at least not relation to joining this kind of relationship"

"So what's next huh?" He was almost being to bounce in his seat, trying to hide the underlining feelings of fear that were still lurking under the surface, "What do we do now?"

She pressed down on his head with her hand like she was attempting to settle a dog down, "You calm down, I cook dinner and then we discuss what you are and are not comfortable with regarding what I'm allowed to do to you"

"Come onnn, we can talk about that over dinner can't we? I beat it'll be easy and we'll just get everything figured out and—"

Sliding her hand down, she covered his mouth to make him stop talking. She narrowed her eyes and just shook her head. Asuka was starting to think that she needed a muzzle for him, just so that he would shut up for a few minutes and she could have some peace.

"We will eat and then discuss"

Dinner mainly consisted of Judai shooting her looks over the food, hoping that she would start talking if he sent her enough thought messages. Asuka just ignored him however and talked about mundane things until she had him engaged in a conversation that wasn't really about anything.

"So I just realized that you haven't told me what you do or anything or what's up with this house and stuff?" he spread his arms out, looking around the kitchen, "This place is kinda huge"

Asuka hmmed, settling all of the dirty dishes into the sink, "You've never asked, have you?" She gave him a look over her shoulder, flicking her hair over her shoulder, "So I've never had a reason to tell you. We always just talked about your adventures and things"

"Well I'm asking now! You must have done something really cool with your life right?"

She smiled slightly, "I guess you could say that, I'm working as a research assistant for professor studying the connections between different mythological creatures through the world. I'm going towards my own PhD in duel history actually"

"See that's cool I should have asked you about that I beat it's really fun and you learn a lot of things…heyy", Judai stopped, his train of thought coming crashing to a stop, "How do you offer this place on a research assistant salary?"

She turned back to the table and sat down with him again, patting his head gently, "My Family has more money than God and I inherited that", Asuka said like it was the plainest thing in the world.

"I didn't know that!"

"…Judai I was in Obeslik Blue, We all had money. I thought you knew that", sometimes the things he failed to notice were amazing to her, things that everyone else would have thought were clear as day.

"…well you didn't act like it", he scratched his head, clearly confused with this turn of events.

Asuka sighed shaking her head, "Okay we're going to move on now, because there are other things to discuss. There are several things that we have to think about in relation to what we're going to do. First and for most I assume you don't want this relationship to be sexual?"

"No offense Asuka but yeah I'd prefer to keep it you know…nothing like that", she was attractive to him, but the idea of mixing something that was supposed to be helping him with sex just seemed like a bad idea that would end up in a mess.

"None taken, I wasn't considering you in that fashion currently", Asuka ran through her mental list of things they needed to discuss, "Collars?"

"Me…wearing one? Why not?" it would be a new experience and considering that all the new things he was experiencing, he didn't see a reason to not to try this, "I mean the whole idea is that I wear one and I belong to you right?"

"Mm, I didn't think you knew so much about this", she commented, rubbing her fingers against her own throat, "But yes, that's the idea of a collar…punishment?"

"…Um the hair pulling is okay, I mean you're the one in charge!"

Asuka smiled, it was nice to see him so happy about everything they were talking about, especially after the attack he had already had, "Humiliation, pain, all of those are okay with you?"

He shrugged, looking away slightly, "Like I said it's all up to you just move on come on Asuka don't be so serious!"

She could feel a pain building behind her eyes that she only got when Judai was around, she pressed her fingers to her forehead, "…I swear to god…Moving on, I suppose the last thing if how much you want people to know about this?"

"It's something that's good for me so no one else should judge right? I'll be happy so that's the important part huh?" Judai was bouncing again, his joy seeming a little bit forced again. He couldn't think to hard about the bad things that might come form their relationship, the good things were all that mattered to him.

The good things were that he was going to start feeling better and that he would get to spend more time with his friends, especially one like Asuka who he didn't get to see enough of. Maybe he would even get to see some of the others that he had been ignoring in an attempt to just make himself feel better. Judai hadn't wanted to bother anyone else with his issues, there was no reason to. Asuka hadn't noticed until last night, which was why he kept coming back here.

"You're thinking to hard," his head was on the table, like he had fallen asleep while he was thinking about everything. Asuka's fingers were massaging were she had kept pulling on his hair, working out the sharp pain that she had caused.

"What are you doing…?" it felt nice, and comforting, like he had done something good instead of just bad like he felt when she went for the pulling.

"Aftercare, you were good and sat all through dinner without getting started, asked me about my job and then discussed our relationship like a reasonable adult. Therefore you get rewarded. You didn't think that it would all be pain and punishment hmm?"

He closed his eyes slightly, "…I dunno", he mummered sleepily, "I just kinda thought you forgot how to be kind…living a lone and everything…sorry about that… you're really nice"

She smiled, noticing that after his little speech he had fallen asleep on the table. "…this can't be good for your back"